Dubai Bling Had To Approve Mona Kattan Elamin’s Outfits
With a personal collection of over 4,000 fragrances (and counting) in her coveted perfume closet, the Middle East’s leading authority on fragrances can now add reality star to her long list of accomplishments
As co-founder and global president of Huda Beauty and founder of Kayali, a fragrance empire born out of her love for emotive scents, entrepreneur Mona Kattan Elamin has kicked off 2024 with a new fragrance launch.
Having released 19 scents in just six years, Mona is honest about her humble beginnings and explains: “I’ve been collecting fragrances since I got my first job. I was 14 years old and working at a pizza restaurant. The first thing I spent my money on was air freight to get fragrances from a CVS Pharmacy in the United States. I just fell so deeply in love with perfumes, because they’re so emotional and they completely change how you feel in an instant – I find that very powerful and just so inspiring.”
Mona Kattan Elamin On Launching Kayali
Launching Kayali in 2018, Mona wanted to create a line of scents that would work best layered. “When I first started, I was obsessed with specific scents and I had this idea of creating a fragrance collection around layering which was inspired by being in Dubai. The way people wear perfume here – I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen anything like it – there are no rules and people mix and they play, and this was before it was fashionable to do so. People thought if you wore two fragrances together that you’re crazy!
“Like I always say, Dubai is a perfume lover’s playground, it’s so playful and fun – there are no rules. You can wear men’s fragrance you can wear women’s fragrance – you can wear whatever you want,” the entrepreneur explains.
The latest addition to the Kayali fragrance family is Eden Sparkling Lychee which is the second Eden fragrance and all about fruity, floral notes. “I think fruity florals are very bright and remind the wearer of happy times. They’re a little bit more youthful and playful, kind of like me, and remind me of when I was at high school,” recounts Mona.
In 2018, along with her family, Mona starred in a reality TV show called Huda Boss on Facebook watch. For the first time, fans of the fabulous family could get a front row seat on the families day to day, with a healthy dose of drama. “It was really fun, it was definitely a cool experience and I feel like watching yourself really helps you grow.
I also feel like it was kind of a form of therapy because you get to see a different perspective of how you appear to an outsider and I really liked that part of it,” reflects Mona.
Mona Kattan Elamin on Dubai Bling
Fast-forward a few years, Mona has ventured back into reality TV, this time with Netflix on season two of Dubai Bling and says the challenge was real when preparing her wardrobe for the show: “It was a lot of work and I wasn’t so prepared… The Dubai Bling team was super selective with the outfits and they had to have approval on every outfit, I had to really step it up!”
The only new cast member in season two, Mona said she felt like ‘the new girl at school’ and explains: “I was grateful to have my dad and my husband by my side, which made me feel more comfortable but it definitely felt like a little bit more pressure to make friends with everyone and to impress the viewers. I just want to make sure that I share sides of myself that allow people see a new side of my life, because I feel like I am very open on social media but I usually just talk about perfume and the beauty business. I don’t really talk about my personal life so much. I am not dramatic so the only thing I can really do is be vulnerable and hope that’s something that people can relate to.”
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2024 issue.